The Past, Present, and Future Trends in Digital Marketing

With technological advancement, businesses are changing how they advertise products and interact with consumers and other businesses. All this is possible because of digitization, where an increasing number of people spend most of their time on the internet.

Digitalization has led to substantial customer attrition for marketing agencies as people adopt the technology. As a result, digital marketing has gained traction, revolutionizing the marketing process and promising to take the sector to new heights.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing involves promoting or marketing products and services through online channels. It is an internet based-marketing strategy that uses emails, search engines, and social media platforms to advertise services and products. Digital marketing features a variety of avenues, and each day new ones are emerging.

With technological advancement, individuals have moved online, and people nowadays even shop online. As a result, marketers have intensified efforts to advertise online, and each day there are new ways they are going about their advertisement. The current state of digital marketing is not what it was in the past, and going into the future, it is likely that more advancements will come. Here is how the digital marketing space has evolved.

The Past Digital Marketing Trends

Digital marketing started in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and during that time, marketers were promoting products over the web. After the emergence of the internet, there was a boost in the digital era, with many people accessing the internet. In this era, AdWords, PageRank, Blogging, and Search Engine Optimization(SEO) were the aspects that dominated the industry. However, with the emergence of Google, things changed drastically.

Social Networks and SEO

Google became a famous search engine following its launch, and by the mid-2000s, it had considerably transformed consumer behavior leading to the birth of digital marketing. As the internet expanded, the concept of digital marketing grew alongside customers starting to inquire about products online.

After the advent of Google, social media platforms started emerging, with Myspace being the first media platform to launch, followed by Facebook. Businesses started leveraging these platforms to promote products and services, and as a result, social media is today an important player in digital marketing.

Interestingly, what revolutionized the space, even more, is the emergence of cookies that allow marketers to track browsing behavior, interests, and frequent patterns of users to target ads.

The Mobile Age and Big Data

In this age, marketers started leveraging available data to track consumer trends and behaviors to help run successful marketing campaigns. Also, with the smartphone launch, people started easily emailing, browsing, and texting. With smartphone adoption growing considerably in the late 2000s browsing the web increased significantly. People started using their phones more and engaging on social media platforms, and the digital marketing team began focusing on social media content optimization.

What are the Current Trends in Digital Marketing?

With the proliferation of smartphones, it has become possible to reach more people online, which has led to significant growth in the digital marketing space. Almost 65% of a person’s digital media time is used on a smartphone. As a result, social networking has boosted the digital marketing revolution, and the industry is valued at $200 billion. Some of the avenues digital marketers currently use include:

Social Media Marketing
Social networks have become an essential avenue for digital markets. With the increasing number of people on social media, marketers are finding it ideal for raising brand awareness on social media.

Content Marketing
This tactic involves creating and promoting unique content for your website to attract and retain customers. Your content can include social posts, blogs, white papers, and articles.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
This is similar to SEO but entails having paid online ads through Google Ads. The approach employs organic and paid search results in driving user traffic. An example is Pay-Per-Click.

Web Design
Web design is important to implement an effective digital marketing strategy. You need a well-optimized and attractive web design to help convert traffic to customers.

What is the Future of Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing will continue growing in the future, and new trends that will define the future have started emerging. Some aspects that will define the future of digital marketing include the following.

Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics

AI and data analytics are part of the digital marketing space, and with the industry evolving, the business will automate digital processes to enable them to make informed decisions. For example, reports indicate that most digital ads will be through automation in the future. AI is already starting to dominate various sectors, and it is no doubt it will influence the future of digital marketing.

Augmented and Virtual Reality

Augmented and virtual reality tools are becoming instrumental to businesses when it comes to communication with customers. According to most experts, AR and VR are expected to be instrumental in the growth of digital marketing and transform e-commerce. This is because the technology allows businesses to leverage it to offer a digital experience in the physical realm.

Web3.0

Although Web3.0 is still on the horizon, digital marketers can start learning about it and tailor their marketing strategies for the future. For example, marketing executives can use Web3.0 to understand consumer preferences and demand. Also, Web3.0 offers user data that digital marketers will leverage to target ads better and provide specialized offerings.

Voice Search Optimization

Voice search automation is growing fast, with virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa taking over. People use voice to search for stuff online, and digital marketers need to integrate voice search optimization in their easy search and navigation strategies.

Bottom-line

Digital marketing is constantly changing, and digital marketers must find ways to keep up with new trends. As a digital marketer, it is important to track emerging trends to help create marketing strategies that will help them reach a larger audience. Digital marketing will continue changing, and new trends are expected as technology keeps changing.